Black Morels Found in Colorado!

by Graham on May 23, 2011

While I was working on expanding mycelium I got an excited phone call from James. He said, “You can probably guess why I’m calling…” and I said, “Are you standing in front of some morels?”. “Black morels! About 30 of ‘em!” he said, and before I knew it, I was driving up into the mountains to go see them. I arrived to the spot and hiked up the stream into a grove of aspens. There was James and Clem standing there with big smiles on their faces. We went down to the stream and James sent me down to find them on my own. What was amazing to me is that they were growing right in the middle of the creek about halfway underwater! When I had first read in books that the Native Americans called morels ‘land fish mushrooms’, and I could never quite understand why until I saw these beautiful specimens swimming in the creek like trout. Even though they were soggy, with a little drying out they made a delectable cream sauce over barbecued chicken. But the most amazing part to me was that when they were fresh they smelled like fresh trout! Amazing! Suddenly the name ‘land fish’ begins to make more sense. So the first report of black morels has arrived in Colorado, and with it tons and tons of rain. We may have had a rough blonde morel season but that doesn’t mean no morels for us Coloradans. So keep your eyes peeled if you are around 9,000′ in elevation and are seeing moist aspen groves, especially if the leaves are just starting to come out, you might get lucky and spot some of these gorgeous little morsels! Check back soon for dates to the Amateur Mycology black morel forays, as well as more pictures and HD video of the whole experience. Happy hunting!

YEAHHHHHHH!!!!! THAT IS AWESOME NEWS!!!!!! What a great find. You guys are right- it just might be an awesome black morel season! What elevation did James find them at??? Are you guys going to look more this weekend???? -Missy

LOL- well, I wasn’t able to read the full post until my comment went thru…and there it was …the answer to my question… 9000 feet!!! LOL LOL LOL Anyway, that is sooo cool that they were growing in the WATER!!!!!!

We just got back from hunting. Picked about 8 pounds of Black Morels in two hours between the five of us. We were in a two year old burn with Ponderosa, Juniper and Oak. All of the good finds were near dead Juniper especially small groves of two to four trees. There was good fire damage but not heavy as some live trees remained. The dirt was moist and some were poking through the Ponderosa needles.

Thanks so much for the info! Great find! That is definatley quite a few morels to say the least. What state were they found in? Colorado? Juniper and Oak trees… Sounds like an interesting habitat to see them in. If you would like, send us some photos if you took any, and we will post them!